


Youth

by Al_in_the_air



Series: October Daily-ish Challenge [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: And she deserves recognition, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Ginny turns 17, Shes had a hard life too, if you squint at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26876071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Al_in_the_air/pseuds/Al_in_the_air
Summary: Ginny Weasley hadn't felt young in a long, long time because her youth has been snatched away before she could experience even a second of it.Or the one in which Ginny reminisces about her life on her 17th birthday.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Series: October Daily-ish Challenge [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960765
Comments: 8
Kudos: 26





	Youth

Youth was a funny thing. 

She was young, sure, in age at least, legally; but she hadn’t felt young in years, which was ironic really, considering she had always,  _ always _ been ‘just too young ' .

She had 11 years of being too young for Hogwarts, she had watched on sadly as brother after brother would move away from home, returning with tales of mischief and mayhem she’d understand when she was older. 

She had been too young to have memories so painful and fresh that Dementors rendered her mute, too exhausted to cry, too embarrassed to ever talk about it. 

She was too young to be included in the whispered conversations and frantic plans. Instead she was sent to bed, kicking and screaming, or pushed into a room with a mop and a brush and her body weight in doxycide.

She was too young to be part of rebellion. Too young to battle the death eaters and watch as Sirius died.

Too young to fight, too young to help. 

Too young to have seen horrors, too young to have seen death so close.

Always, always, just too young. 

And yet she wasn’t young, was she?

When she was a child, she thought her youth would be made up of mischief and staying out of sneaking drinks and kissing boys. She thought she’d have fun. She thought she had time. 

She didn’t for one second think that mischief and staying out late meant an illegal rebellion against tyrannical leadership. She couldn't have comprehended that her sneaking drinks would have been while mourning a friend, a mentor, a brother. And she never would have guessed that at just 15 years old she’d be kissing someone goodbye without a promise of him ever returning to her.

She should have known really, that her youth would never go as planned. 

She should’ve known because she’d not felt young in years. 

She’d not felt young since the day she stepped onto the Hogwarts Express for the first time, when her youth had been snatched away by a boy with quick wit, gentle prose and a quill sharper than daggers. He had possessed her through pages of her soul and taken away everything before she’d even had a chance to take a breath. 

She was too young then, to have been possessed by someone too despicable to name. 

It took her an age to get over that and when she finally stopped flinching at loud noises and began to trust herself again, the whole world went to hell. 

Suddenly she was facing a war more certain than her next birthday. She was watching her family panic and squirm, watching the boy she loved face challenge after challenge and face death too many times to count. She had to fight, for herself, for her safety, to protect others and show the world she was stronger than she looked. 

All that before she’d even come of age, a feat she had begun to believe she’d never see,  if she eve n want ed to by that point. 

If her youth had been snatched so unceremoniously from her, did she really want to see what would happen next?

Ginny thought about this, as she sat at the kitchen table, surrounded by (almost) everyone she loved and smiled warmly at the birthday cake in front of her, hand baked with love and affection by her mother.

“Make a wish, Gin.” Ron prompted, as the toneless singing died down. 

She closed her eyes and took a breath in through her nose and with one long, out the candles. Seventeen tiny flames extinguished in one blow. 

When Harry asked her later that night what she wished for, she smirked and winked and said, “wouldn’t you like to know.” 

If he’d have pressed further she would have told him that she wished for some sordid act she’d plucked out of the pages of Witch Weekly, something obscene that would have made him squirm, but he didn't. 

“Whatever it was, I hope it comes true.”

“It will.” Ginny said, with certainty and confidence, because it would, she would make it so. 

She’d wished for youth for herself and for Harry, for Ron and Hermione and George and Luna and anyone else still struggling. She wished for more time in which they could be young and she wouldn’t let anything get in the way. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> Thanks as always to my lovely Inareskai for her proofing and for holding me accountable. Ur the best. 
> 
> I also post these and some half written WIPs on Tumblr @al-in-the-air if anyone cares :)


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